Leon Noble

Profile

I am a first-year PhD student, in the Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) in the School for Earth and Environment, funded by the ESRC White Rose DTP. 

My academic background may be non-linear and slightly unusual, moving from Philosophy, Public Health to my current field of Environmental Studies but they represent my shifting focus from elementary, theoretical questions such as what is moral? what can we know? – to more practical questions of how do our lifestyles affect health outcomes? how can they be improved? – to now asking what is the opportunity presented by a wide-scale shift to Alternative Proteins for the environment and society?

For my Masters Dissertation I conducted cross-sectional research on the consumer perceptions of cultivated meat in the UK. Although I was able to marginally improve perceptions after the provision of positive information about cultivated meat, it was evident the ethical, health and environmental benefits of Alternative Proteins were not being realised by most consumers.

For the last three years, I worked as a research assistant on a range of complex-health interventions across a range of settings. I was fortunate to be able to gain experience supporting research projects from the design stage to collecting and analysing the data to writing up the results.

Since my masters research however, I was motivated to return to Alternative Protein research, looking to expand the scope beyond consumer perceptions to the social, economic and environmental impacts of Alternative Proteins so I feel blessed to be funded to do this research with the support of the Good Food Institute Europe. 

Research interests

Alternative proteins (APs) - plant-based, cultivated, and fermented food products - represent a promising solution to the environmental pressures and inefficiencies from the production of animal products. However, most research so far has been focused on the technical development of alternative proteins or life cycle assessments of specific products leaving the social, cultural, economic, and environmental transformations resulting from a wide-scale shift to APs understudied. 

Research questions and methodology

1. How are different APs likely to be accepted in different European contexts?

• I will assess current perceptions and consumption habits of APs in different European contexts using findings from national surveys, retail sales data, policy analyses and conducting semi-structured interviews with key informants.

2. How could European demand for different proteins change up to 2050?

• I will estimate the future demand for different food groups using demographic data and projections of per capita GDP,  and informed by “willingness-to-accept studies”, produce a range of potential demand scenarios.

3. What would be the social, economic, and environmental impacts of meeting this demand?

• Finally, I will estimate the impacts of these scenarios using: 1) data from life cycle assessments of APs; 2) land use change models and; 3) existing economic/environmental data on land use and food production systems.

Qualifications

• BA Philosophy
• MSc Nutrition, Physical Activity and Public Health

Research groups and institutes

• Sustainability Research Institute
• Sustainable Food Systems